The Danger of a Single Story

Chimamanda Adichie is a Nigerian author/novelist and here is a lecture/talk she made at TED Talks sometime ago.



This talk is personal for 2 reasons:

1. I am Nigerian and proud, just like the speaker

2. Having lived in Europe for about 8 years now, I have very similar, if not exact stories as told by the speaker


Despite being closely linked to this story, I will endeavour not to personalise it. I believe that the story actually applies to all of us, irrespective of our race/ colour of our skin and our current place of abode. Even with the advent of the internet, 24-hour television and the relative affordability of land, sea and air travel, we all still have preconceived notions of other people that are not exactly true and may not be in a hurry to change such perceptions. For some people, only a personal, face-to-face interaction with a person from a particular region of the world will change this pre-conceived notion.

For want of time (considering that the video is almost 20 minutes long), I will let you all enjoy the video and leave your comments (personal 'single story' situations )